Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a metering apparatus, in particular a pipetting machine, comprising a pipetting device moveably in three directions (X, Y, Z) orthogonal to each other with at least one pipetting channel at which a pipetting tip is or can be attached detachably to aspirate sample liquid from a sample container corresponding to the metering apparatus or to dispense sample liquid in a sample container, wherein the at least one pipetting channel is configured such that a pipetting tip detachably attached to it can be removed from the pipetting channel, preferably it can be removed automatically, and a disposal container arranged at the metering apparatus, into which used pipetting tips can be accommodated after removing from a respective pipetting channel.
Background of the Related Art
In known metering apparatuses, in particular pipetting machines, the disposal container is in general arranged at a specific position of the metering apparatus in a fixed manner. The disposal container may for example be designed in form of a bag arranged at the metering apparatus, into which the used pipetting tips are dropped. Such a stationary disposal container is approached after each pipetting process separately by a delivering movement of the pipetting device. Consecutively, a movement of the pipetting device to a supply container for pipetting tips provided at the metering apparatus is carried out to collect clean pipetting tips for the next pipetting process. Removing of the used pipetting tips from the respective pipetting channels is therefore always carried out at the end of the separate delivering movement to the disposal container. The movement of the pipetting device to the disposal container and from the disposal container to the supply container for pipetting tips consumes time and leads to a longer duration of a whole pipetting process, wherein several pipetting processes are executed automatically one after another.
With pipetting tips, which have a length that is a large multiple of their maximal diameter, for example approximately 5 to 25 times, inside the known disposal container a random and disposal volume wasting arrangement of pipetting tips results within the known disposal containers. The reason therefore is that the pipetting tips are accommodated arbitrarily oriented inside of the disposal container, wherein the pipetting tips align under influence of gravity and under influence of colliding with already disposed pipetting tips randomly. Therefore, within the disposal container a chaotic arrangement of used pipetting tips results.